Moving an angry bird from one enclosure to another has proved a tougher proposition for the zoo than relocating lions and tigers.

The zoo’s lone representative of the world’s tallest and heaviest bird species was on Thursday shifted to a new enclosure that is larger and sunnier, but not before the beneficiary of extra comfort showed how obstinate an ostrich can be.

The strapping male, around nine feet tall and weighing more than 140kg, refused to enter a wooden cage on wheels for more than a fortnight until zoo officials decided that the ostrich had to be deceived for its own good.

“Our zookeepers would lie in wait for hours, hoping the bird would enter the cage and they would quickly bolt the door. When the strategy did not work for over two weeks, we thought of an alternative plan,” an official said.

On Thursday, when the zoo is closed to visitors, the keeper who gives food to the ostrich went in with a piece of perforated cloth. He covered the bird’s head with the cloth, restricting its vision and ability to move.

After making sure that the ostrich was unable to see what was happening around it, a team of five moved in to push the big bird into the cage. “They still had to be very careful not to come in front of the bird. An ostrich can only kick forward,” said Asis Kr Samanta, the director of the zoo.

Video-sharing site YouTube had provided ostrich troubleshooting tips when nothing else worked. “We got the idea from videos of ostriches being transported from one place to another in other countries,” Samanta said.

An ostrich kick can kill or severely injure a person or a potential predator. They cannot fly but ostriches are strong runners that can sprint up to 70kmph, faster than the speed limit on most Calcutta roads.

The long legs of an ostrich can cover 10 to 16 feet in a single stride.

The new ostrich enclosure at the zoo is beside the home of the zebras. “This plot used to be the home of a couple of fallow deer that died,” an official said.

A day after being tricked into a transfer cage, the ostrich appeared to be enjoying its new home, almost 1.5 times the size of its previous shelter.

The zoo had brought a pair of ostriches from Chennai in 2009. The female died a few years ago.

The ostrich, with its head covered in a piece of perforated cloth, is transported to its new enclosure. Gautam Bose